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| Thread ID: 79357 | 2007-05-17 05:23:00 | PC or Notepad? | percyporter (6633) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 550567 | 2007-05-17 05:23:00 | I have been delaying upgrading for sometime now and am still not sure what to do. I am currently running XP 1.750ghz processor and 250gb HDD. I use mainly for Audio editing and some photo editing but nothing fancy on the latter, I use Adobe Audition for the former. I use Kodak software for image editing but may well move to Adobe Photoshop Elements after reading the article in the current PC World It is painfully obvious of late that whilst I have sufficient HDD space I am sadly lacking in processor speed and RAM (224), my problem is what to go for What ever I get will likely be my last upgrade, age (mine) and disposable income being the drawbacks. I have looked at of the shelf pcs and box only special builds and am currently looking at an Imac as I have been advised that they are probably the best all round machine for Audio/Image editing. I have been quoted around $800.00 from Dell for a box only and $1,100.00 for a box only to my fairly high specs, they are as below. I will be providing my own software including the OS as well as installing the existing 250gb HDD from my existing machine. Saturn YY-5601 ATX Mid Tower Case, Black/Grey Gigabyte GA-M61VME Motherboard AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ CPU, 2.2GHz Seagate Hard Disk Drive, 250GB, 7200rpm, 8192KB Cache, SATA-2 LiteOn SHM-165P6S DVD Writer, DVD 16R/16W/8RW Kingston ValueRAM 2GB DDR2-667MHz non-ECC Kit CL5 Highpower HPC-370-N12S, 370W ATX PSU, Silver, I would appreciate comments/advice Regards |
percyporter (6633) | ||
| 550568 | 2007-05-17 05:36:00 | Before you go getting a Dell:eek: check out this thread 146 complaints against Dell and counting Dell Hell: Computer Giant Faces Consumer Lawsuit abcnews.go.com Do you do a lot of gaming at all? Or are the bulk of your PC use just for multimedia and photo editing? BTW Adobe Photoshop elements would be an excellent choice. With regards to the afforementioned iMac, go for the 17in version, although you could wait for a month or so as the whole line is due for a product refresh which will mean that the existing models will likely reduce in price by several hundred $. The only catch with that would be that apart from needing to get the Mac version of the Adobe range, your existing PC stuff would require either Bootcamp or Parallels to be installed so that you could run XP. For audio/video editing you would be able to use iMovie, Garageband and iDVD which come as part of the iLife bundle. I guess it just depends on the limitations of your budget. |
winmacguy (3367) | ||
| 550569 | 2007-05-17 05:52:00 | For the specs above, Dell charges you $1100, right? Very bad ripoff. I could individually pick out the components and run into a total of $660. A saving of $440. Check out www.pricespy.co.nz and stay the hell away from Dell! :D |
qazwsxokmijn (102) | ||
| 550570 | 2007-05-17 06:08:00 | I have been delaying upgrading for sometime now and am still not sure what to do. I am currently running XP 1.750ghz processor and 250gb HDD. I use mainly for Audio editing and some photo editing but nothing fancy on the latter, I use Adobe Audition for the former. I use Kodak software for image editing but may well move to Adobe Photoshop Elements after reading the article in the current PC World It is painfully obvious of late that whilst I have sufficient HDD space I am sadly lacking in processor speed and RAM (224), my problem is what to go for What ever I get will likely be my last upgrade, age (mine) and disposable income being the drawbacks. I have looked at of the shelf pcs and box only special builds and am currently looking at an Imac as I have been advised that they are probably the best all round machine for Audio/Image editing. I have been quoted around $800.00 from Dell for a box only and $1,100.00 for a box only to my fairly high specs, they are as below. I will be providing my own software including the OS as well as installing the existing 250gb HDD from my existing machine. Saturn YY-5601 ATX Mid Tower Case, Black/Grey Gigabyte GA-M61VME Motherboard AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ CPU, 2.2GHz Seagate Hard Disk Drive, 250GB, 7200rpm, 8192KB Cache, SATA-2 LiteOn SHM-165P6S DVD Writer, DVD 16R/16W/8RW Kingston ValueRAM 2GB DDR2-667MHz non-ECC Kit CL5 Highpower HPC-370-N12S, 370W ATX PSU, Silver, I would appreciate comments/advice Regards Hi, in my view, while the processor and RAM look like good components, you appear to be missing a vital component for graphical work, namely the video card! On-board video chipsets are okay for office stuff, but video editing etc will crawl. |
SolMiester (139) | ||
| 550571 | 2007-05-17 06:14:00 | For the specs above, Dell charges you $1100, right? Very bad ripoff. I could individually pick out the components and run into a total of $660. A saving of $440. Check out www.pricespy.co.nz and stay the hell away from Dell! :D That would be a good thing if your going to include the cost of good additional 3rd party Audio and Video editing apps to the price of your PC editing suite since the free versions don't include the necessary add ons. |
winmacguy (3367) | ||
| 550572 | 2007-05-17 07:47:00 | Saturn YY-5601 ATX Mid Tower Case, Black/Grey Gigabyte GA-M61VME Motherboard AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ CPU, 2.2GHz Seagate Hard Disk Drive, 250GB, 7200rpm, 8192KB Cache, SATA-2 LiteOn SHM-165P6S DVD Writer, DVD 16R/16W/8RW Kingston ValueRAM 2GB DDR2-667MHz non-ECC Kit CL5 Highpower HPC-370-N12S, 370W ATX PSU, Silver, Forget Dell or any other US Corporation crap box. That looks OK except for the missing graphics and I'd skip that PSU and get an Enermax. |
pctek (84) | ||
| 550573 | 2007-05-17 09:10:00 | Thanks for the responses folks, the quote fore the specs shown was not from Dell but from another source. The image editing is only for digital photos and not video so hopefully anything onboard would suffice. I should add that those specs mean very little to me other than I specified I needed some thing that would do the sound editing fairly quickly as I work for a radio station and record and edit around two hours of pre recorded material a week and I believe they will do just that. My total gaming is limited to Spider and Solitaire so hopefully that answers another comment. The other option would of course be to get the individual components and install them in my existing box. I am not comfortable in doing that though as my computer skills are only just one step up from being able to switch it on and off. :o |
percyporter (6633) | ||
| 550574 | 2007-05-17 09:31:00 | Thanks for the responses folks, the quote fore the specs shown was not from Dell but from another source . The image editing is only for digital photos and not video so hopefully anything onboard would suffice . I should add that those specs mean very little to me other than I specified I needed some thing that would do the sound editing fairly quickly as I work for a radio station and record and edit around two hours of pre recorded material a week and I believe they will do just that . My total gaming is limited to Spider and Solitaire so hopefully that answers another comment . The other option would of course be to get the individual components and install them in my existing box . I am not comfortable in doing that though as my computer skills are only just one step up from being able to switch it on and off . :o Could you tell us what your budget range is? If building your own audio editing suite is not an option and your actual computing skills are limited and your wanting something that works right out of the box with ALL audio and video editing and compiling options included and easy to use for the price, my suggestion would be the originally suggested 17" iMac or the 13" MacBook which should actually have come down in price by a few hundred since the newly refreshed models became available yesterday morning . |
winmacguy (3367) | ||
| 550575 | 2007-05-17 09:54:00 | Depends on how much convenience is worth to you as far as buying a system goes - an off the shelf iMac might be the path of least resistance. As far as bang for buck, will you be moving the machine around? If not, then a macbook wouldn't really make sense. Likewise checking stuff through pricespy & assembling a machine yourself - if the idea doesn't excite you as a project save yourself some grey hairs. Have you checked trademe? That's the best value IMO. You could get a box (into which to put your current HD) for a few hundred bucks which would do everything you want. I'd suggest posting some possibilities here, and maybe eagle eyed contributers could add their own. I've found people around here quite good like that :) Everyone has their own story, but my trademe purchases have been a lot less hassle than many Dell customers seem prone to. And yet another alternative - check if your local PC shops have any 2nd hand gear. The specs you're after are quite tame, maybe they have trade-in boxes or old stuff they want rid of. Most likely it'll be well checked and you have local backup if needed. |
mmmork (6822) | ||
| 550576 | 2007-05-17 11:45:00 | Budget? Well as little as possible but I guess around $1,000.00 is about all I can afford give or take a couple of bucks, however I suggest 'er indoors would have a different take! | percyporter (6633) | ||
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